Proceedings of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute named after S. M. Kirov

Vol. 273　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　1973

TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND PERSONNEL TRAINING IN THE LOGGING INDUSTRY

L. V. ANDREEV

During the years of Soviet power, the logging industry has been transformed from a primitive, semi-handicraft activity into an industrial branch of the national economy, in which all the principal operations are fully mechanized.

However, despite the high rates of scientific and technological progress, the quantitative growth of machines and their qualitative improvement, and the high mechanization of operations, the mechanization of labor in logging is still small and does not exceed 35–40%.

In this connection, the materials of the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU set the task of developing a comprehensive program for the further development of equipment and technology in logging production. This means that, along with the improvement of existing machines in the direction of increasing their power, speed, and other parameters, fundamentally new machines will be created and introduced into production. Already during the years of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, feller-skidder machines VTM-75 and TM-100 will be introduced relatively widely in felling operations. Controlled by a single operator, these powerful machines, combining the felling and skidding of timber, will free people from manual operations, significantly ease labor, and raise the level of its mechanization. More advanced and powerful mechanisms will be introduced in skidding and timber hauling, and in loading and unloading operations throughout the entire technological chain of logging operations. In wood processing, branch trimming, and the sorting of assortments, semiautomatic and automatic lines will be widely used.

Technological progress leads to changes in the professional composition of workers and to changes in the requirements for their general and professional training. If a feller once needed elementary knowledge of the simplest equipment and technology, sometimes acquired simply through experience, then the operator of a feller-skidder machine must know the theoretical foundations of the design and operation of complex, combined machines and the technology of production. “Special knowledge, a high level of professional training, and the general culture of the individual are becoming an obligatory condition for successful labor among ever broader strata of workers,” noted L. I. Brezhnev at the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU.

Practice shows that new equipment is effective when there are personnel who possess the knowledge and experience for its highly productive operation. The qualifications of workers and the level of their general and technical knowledge exert an enormous influence on production results.

and in the logging industry. Better-trained and more highly qualified machine operators make fuller use of the capabilities of machinery and achieve better production results. Thus, according to A. V. Serov, Class I and II drivers engaged in timber hauling have plan-fulfillment indicators 17% higher than the enterprise average, a 3% reduction in cost, and a 10% reduction in direct costs dependent on the driver.^1

Therefore, along with improving production on the basis of new equipment, attention must be paid to personnel training and to raising workers’ general knowledge and qualifications. The general education and vocational training of workers must outpace the development of technology, or at least keep pace with it, but in no case lag behind it, for only in that case will it be possible to make full use of the capabilities of new machines and mechanisms.

At present, the level of general education among workers in the logging industry is considerably lower than in the country’s leading branches of industry. This conclusion was reached as a result of an analysis of personnel records for industrial-production staff, carried out by the author in July–August 1969 in 12 timber-industry enterprises of the Tomlesprom association, with a total number of workers and employees exceeding 11,000. The analysis showed that the majority of workers and employees have elementary education (28.2%) or incomplete secondary education (65.2%). Workers and employees with secondary, secondary technical, and higher education number only 6.6% in all; of these, engineers and technicians account for 2.7%. Among machine operators—including power-saw and chainsaw operators, tractor drivers, and drivers—26.6% have elementary education, 69.2% have incomplete secondary education, and only 4.2% have secondary education. The average level of education is lowest among power-saw and chainsaw operators—5.5 grades; among tractor drivers it is 6.2; among drivers, 6.8 grades; and among the other categories of workers it is still lower and does not exceed grades 4–5.

As a result of the analysis it was established that 15.3% of drivers have Class I, 35.3% Class II, and almost half (49.4%) Class III. The qualifications of tractor drivers are still lower: the absolute majority of them—75.4%—have Class III, 18.4% Class II, and only 6.2% Class I. The qualifications of the remaining categories of workers and employees are also low, judging by their total and continuous length of service in the forest industry. As of June 1, 1967, 27.1% of all workers at timber-extraction enterprises of the RSFSR had less than five years of total work experience in the forest industry; 21.1% of workers had worked in the forest industry from 5 to 10 years; and only the remaining share of workers and employees had worked in the forest industry for a longer period. The figures cited greatly exceed the corresponding indicators for timber extraction in the country as a whole, where only 39.9% of workers had total work experience of up to 10 years. Continuously, 19.8% have been working in the forest industry for less than a year; 22.7% for 1 to 3 years; and only 47.5% of workers and employees have been working continuously in the forest industry for more than 3 years.^2

There is a direct relationship between the level of general education, the qualifications of machine operators, and the availability of engineering and technical personnel in timber-industry enterprises, on the one hand, and the technical condition, utilization of machines and mechanisms, and production results, on the other. At enterprises with a low level of general and vocational training of workers and a small number of engineering and technical—

^1 See: A. V. Serov, Reliability of Logging Equipment. Moscow, 1966, p. 100.
^2 Vestnik statistiki, 1968, No. 2, p. 95.

...workers who received their education in higher educational institutions and secondary specialized educational institutions, as a rule, have lower coefficients of readiness and utilization of equipment, and poorer production results.

The low general and professional training of personnel in the logging industry already makes it impossible fully to use the achievements of scientific and technological progress in it; it will hinder the increase in production efficiency in the course of its technical re-equipment, because the transfer of workers in a number of occupations that are dying out as technological progress advances to other areas of work will be complicated by the low level of their general and technical knowledge. Therefore, questions of personnel training in the logging industry deserve more attention than has so far been given to them.

As a result of the extremely minute division of labor in logging operations, there is a considerable number of narrowly specialized occupations. Moreover, the number of occupations is growing rapidly as the pace of scientific and technological progress in the sector increases. Thus, in recent years logging operations have acquired operators of jaw loaders, self-propelled skidding machines, semiautomatic and automatic lines for wood processing, and other specialists, who for the most part are currently trained directly at enterprises or associations. The effect of such training of skilled workers is very small. It is therefore expedient to organize the training of workers for new and old narrowly specialized occupations for regions or for the sector as a whole in stationary educational institutions within the system of the Ministry of the Forest and Woodworking Industry.

The Directives of the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU on the five-year plan for the development of the national economy for 1971–1975 set the task of increasing timber procurement in the forest-surplus regions of the North, Siberia, and the Far East.

In this connection, attention is drawn to the fact that in these regions the educational level of the population is significantly lower than the average level for the RSFSR, and the number of specialists with higher and secondary specialized education per 1,000 workers and employees is smaller than the average for the RSFSR and the USSR. Many authors point to the lower qualification composition of workers and employees in the logging industry of these regions.^3 According to B. N. Zykin, the average grades of workers in the logging industry of the forest-rich regions of Siberia are 5–12%, and the share of workers of higher grades is 8–22%, lower than in the European part of the country.^4

The lower level of education and qualification composition of workers in the logging industry of the forest-rich regions of Siberia, compared with other regions of the country, is explained in part by the fact that most of these regions have a tight resource balance, because in recent years, alongside logging, other branches of industry have been developing rapidly there. Therefore logging enterprises in these regions are forced to recruit broadly from other regions of the country. Thus, during the years of the eighth five-year plan, persons arriving by organized recruitment at the timber-industry enterprises of the Tomles combine accounted for 12 to 22% of all workers hired annually. The costs of attracting them were large and constantly

^3 See: V. N. Lushnikov, Labor Intensity of Forest Products, Novosibirsk, 1963, pp. 16–17; B. N. Zykin, Regional Differences in Labor Productivity, Moscow, 1965, pp. 52–53.

^4 B. N. Zykin, cited work, pp. 55, 56, 58.

^5 Calculated from data in Form No. 7 of the annual reports of the “Tomles” combine.

increase. In 1970 they amounted to 547 thousand rubles and rose by 12% compared with 1965.^5

In addition to these large costs associated with expenditures on the organized recruitment of workers, the national economy incurs large losses because people arriving through organized recruitment from the western regions of the country, as a rule, do not have the trades and skills needed for work in the forest and cannot work as productively as local lumberjacks. The mass assignment to timber-industry enterprises in the eastern regions of the country of unskilled workers lowers the overall qualification level of the logging workers employed there and increases labor turnover, since the main portion of the people recruited through organized recruitment leave again for their places of origin.

At the Tomles combine during 1965–1970, more than one-third of workers were dismissed and hired again each year; moreover, in some, especially remote, timber-industry enterprises even greater labor turnover is observed. In them, more than half of the workers are dismissed and hired again each year. Thus, in the Beloyarsk timber-industry enterprise in 1970, 428 people were hired, 424 left, with 744 workers on hand as of January 1, 1971; the same situation exists in the Vasyugan and many other timber-industry enterprises. The turnover of specialists with higher and secondary technical education is especially high. Each year during the years indicated, on average 20–25% of engineers and technicians left; most of them were people who had worked in the forest industry for more than three years and had considerable production experience.

Exceptionally high turnover and a shortage of engineering and technical personnel in the country’s logging industry make it difficult to improve their qualifications, do not allow the full use of equipment, and restrain the growth of labor productivity and the efficiency of logging production, especially at enterprises in the eastern, less settled regions of the country.

Despite the fact that logging enterprises spend enormous sums on all possible forms of training (at the Tomles combine in 1970 these expenditures amounted to 629 thousand rubles and increased by 1.5 times compared with 1965),^6 there is no substantial rise in the general educational and qualification level of industrial production personnel, because the most highly qualified workers and the most experienced engineers and technicians transfer to work in other branches of the national economy.

The party and government resolution “On the Development of the Logging Industry of the USSR in 1966–1970” defined measures for the further expansion of the logging industry and the elimination of labor turnover; implementation of these measures is already yielding positive results. However, some questions concerning the development of the logging industry, especially in the eastern regions of the country, still require discussion and resolution.

In this connection, the organization of higher forestry-technical education deserves great attention. At present there are substantial shortcomings in the location of higher forestry-technical educational institutions: most of them are located in the western part of the country, whereas in Siberia and the Far East, where by the end of the five-year plan no less than 50% of the total volume of logging and forestry work will be concentrated, there are only two higher educational institutions producing forestry-technical personnel. Moreover, their admissions plan is small, and they are not able to supply the logging industry of Siberia and the Far East with engineering personnel. Practice shows that people who have received educa—

^6 Calculated from the data of Form No. 4 to the annual reports of the Tomles combine.

training in higher forestry educational institutions in the western part of the country do not take root well in Siberia. At the same time, during the years of the current five-year plan, the volumes of logging in Tomsk and Tyumen oblasts will increase significantly; industries for the deep chemical processing of wood will develop here, and they too will require specialists. Therefore the time has come to open a forestry higher educational institution in one of the cities of Western Siberia to train specialists for the logging and woodworking industries.

Under conditions of scientific and technological progress, it is necessary to raise the qualifications both of certified engineers and technicians and of practical specialists, whose number is still large. Therefore, along with expanding and improving the quality of specialist training, it is necessary to make broad use of upgrading the qualifications of engineering and technical workers of logging enterprises through the course network at forestry higher educational institutions and technical schools.

The growth of qualifications and the raising of workers’ education have a positive effect on the production activity of enterprises. However, in the logging industry, workers’ acquisition of new specialties and the raising of their education are stimulated chiefly only indirectly, through wages, when in production collectives, with the development of the combining of professions and the mutual substitution of workers, higher production indicators are achieved and, consequently, higher earnings.

In addition, Order No. 405 of the Minister of the Forest, Pulp-and-Paper, and Woodworking Industry of the USSR of August 3, 1966, “On increasing the material interest of workers of forest-industry enterprises located in sparsely populated regions in increasing the volume of logging,” introduced increased long-service rewards for skilled workers, managerial engineering and technical personnel, and employees.^7

Without diminishing the importance of these factors in stimulating the growth of qualifications and the level of general education of workers, they cannot be recognized as sufficient under present-day conditions; therefore, measures of moral encouragement for workers who improve their general and professional training should be widely used. This is necessary because measures of moral encouragement are widely applied when workers achieve high production indicators and are practically not applied to encourage those who raise their level of general education and qualifications.

The establishment of benefits in the regions of the Far North, as well as other measures aimed at improving the well-being of the Soviet people and implemented in accordance with the decisions of the CPSU, are of exceptionally great importance for the logging industry and help to secure personnel in it. However, it appears that the questions of securing personnel, especially in the country’s sparsely forested regions, have not yet been fully resolved, and in general they cannot be resolved by state measures alone.

First of all, questions must be resolved concerning the securing of people who have arrived at logging enterprises from the western regions of the country. Order No. 405 of the Minister of the Forest, Pulp-and-Paper, and Woodworking Industry provides for the payment of rewards to workers, engineering and technical personnel, and employees of enterprises located in sparsely populated regions of the country after three years of work at the enterprise.^8 Meanwhile, for persons newly arriving at timber-industry enterprises, espe—

^7 See item 1 of the indicated order.
^8 See item 3 of the order.

It is especially important to create favorable material conditions during the period of their acclimatization and settlement. Therefore, along with other advantages, it would be advisable to grant persons arriving at timber-industry enterprises in the country’s heavily forested regions benefits in the payment of seniority bonuses already in the first years of their work at enterprises in heavily forested regions, by analogy with the benefits in the regions of the Far North. Such a measure would help to secure personnel in the country’s heavily forested regions and to raise their qualifications. Solving all the problems raised in this article will lead to an increase in labor productivity and to greater production efficiency in the logging industry.